JStone
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- Jun 29, 2011
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Jerusalem is sacred Muslim and "Palestinian" land? Well, no, after all.
Reality check for Muslims and so-called "Palestinians" from Eminent Islamic Scholar Bernard Lewis...
Reality check for Muslims and so-called "Palestinians" from Eminent Islamic Scholar Bernard Lewis...
For some time now, it has come to be generally accepted by Muslims that Jerusalem is a holy city; indeed, most rank it third after Mecca and Medina. This was, however, by no means always accepted by Muslims, and in earlier times there was strong resistance among many [Muslim] theologians and jurists who regarded this notion as a Judaizing error--as one more among many attempts by Jewish converts [to Islam] to infiltrate Jewish ideas or practices into Islam. A story told by the great ninth-century historian Tabari, describing a visit by the caliph Umar to the newly conquered city of Jerusalem, illustrates the point:
"When Umar came...to Aelia [Jerusalem, renamed Aelia Capitolina by the Romans]...he said, "bring me Ka'b" [Jewish convert to Islam] Ka'b was brought to him and Umar asked him, "Where do you think we should put the place of prayer?"
"By the Rock," [in Jerusalem] answered Ka'b. "By God, Ka'b," said Umar, "you are following after Judaism. I saw you take off your sandals."
"I wanted to feel the touch of it with my bare feet," said Ka'b. "I saw you," said Umar. "but no...we were not commanded concerning the Rock [in Jerusalem], but we were commanded concerning the Ka'ba [in Mecca]"
Ka'b al-Ahbar was a well-known Jewish convert to Islam and an important figure often cited in connection with what are seen as Judaizing insertions into true Islamic doctrine. The point of the story clearly is that the sanctity of Jerusalem is a Jewish, not a Muslim, belief, that Ka'b was at fault in maintaining it despite his conversion, and that only Mecca is the direction of prayer and the place of pilgrimage for Muslims.
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